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Saturday, 27 November 2010

See that pink bit, that's the bit I'm talking about. Gimp masks, whips and nipple clamps don't really do it for me at all I'm afraid.

I have a confession to make. In my BK (Before Kids) youth I was a..

nailpainted,fashionconcious,hairstyled,highheelwearing,multibagowning,heavypartying,lowcarbing,makeupwearing,officeworking,housesharing,miniskirtwearing,heavydrinkingkind of girl.

These days I am an animal owning Mum. My beauty routine consits of a 10 minute shower and slap a bit of face cream on *blushes*. Fashion, - well whatever is clean, ironed (ish) and to hand. And these are my current footwear of choice

But just recently, I have acquired a beauty blog habit. I am addicted to Pixiwoo tutorials on you tube and have been following a number of beauty blogs Cheeky Beauty, Super Beauty and my absolute favourite Modesty Brown. I just love how Ms Brown even goes into the science of some of these products.

It really inspires me to go out and spend some money. I know that I bought a mascara in July (duty free), but I honestly can't remember the last time I bought anything else. I wonder if I can get one of them to take me on as a project Hmmm!!

Friday, 26 November 2010

I am not responsible enough to write my blog on a regular basis, I regularly have to have a panic hunt through fridge and freezer to find something that will 'do' for lunch or tea and due to my most recent bout of irresponsibility...

Aren't they just cute.

There are four of them, 3 girlies and a boy - the big brindled one is the boy. They were born at about 09.00 on 10 November, and Girlie#2 and I saw them all being born *insert big cheesey grin* - there are of course birth photos, but I'll not be publishing them, unless of course demand dictates. In the photo above they are about 9 days old and at exactly two weeks they opened their eyes.

They have no names yet as they are not staying, but mummy's big boy might just answer to Tiger.

As you can see Girlie#1 has already started posing with them, this is actually a self portrait - with my camera!!! Must put a stop to that or have a word with Santa.

Anyway, little LillieLoo has made a most excellent mother and there will be be no need to call the Social Services. She is far more responsible than me!!!

Monday, 18 October 2010

We went to see Luna about a month ago, but the man that was selling her wanted silly money. So it was not to be.She will be three in March of next year. She is very quiet and calm in the stable, you can touch her all over without any problem. But...

She has been kept stabled for probably the last 15 months of her life. I walked her home - about 3 km - very nicely. She was a little surprised at the first few cars that passed us and had a bit of a wobbler at a plastic bag. Dogs didn't faze her one bit, but when we crossed the motorway bridge, she was a little alarmed and had to positively leap over the narrow gully where the pieces of tarmac join!!!

On the whole I was very pleased with her performance. As I'm not sure that she's left her stable to much before hand. There is a possibility that she is in foal *rolls eyes* - for me under three is too young. I think that we have quite probably saved her from being quite a brood mare, churning out one foal after another. At least here she will be loose in the paddock and be able to exercise a bit.

She and Estrella have got on really well. There was a bit of mutual wither nibbling and now they are just BFFs. They have even been eating from the same manger, which surprised me as Estrella is a complete greedy guts and I didn't think that she would take too kindly to sharing.

So that's the newest member of my family - Luna as it had to go with Estrella and all the planet names seemed a little macho to me.I also hope to get caught up with some of my missed summer posts this week although they will probably be a bit higgledy piggledy in their recounting!!!

Friday, 24 September 2010

There has been a little bit of a heated debate regarding children's birthday parties on a forum that I use, it fair made me chuckle to be honest. I have to say that due to the young ages of my girlies when we moved here, I never actually had to host a party in the UK.

Also, as I am an old mummy and of the era when a good party was a house full of kids, long polyester/nylon party dresses, last seasons sandals spray painted silver and a few good games of pass the parcel and musical bumps, the parties that have to be organised today would completely fry my brains. Really the most complicated it got was a request to take your piece of cake home - and I honestly can't ever remember any other mummies staying unless it was my mum's BF to giver her moral support and glasses of wine. Goodie bags had not been invented and you may have been lucky enough to take a balloon on a string home or a "prize" that had been won.

So, here are the rules for holding a Spanish children's birthday party, from about ages 4 to 11

All children in the class are to be invited - this is not negotiable Sundry other friends and cousins etc are also to be included.

Do not expect an RSVP - ever

Any siblings whose names were not on the invitation may or may not also turn up

Parents may or may not stay - if they stay food and drink is to be provided after the children have eaten

No entertainment (paid) is to be provided - nor party games organised

Food must consist of olives, crisps, assorted nuts, filled rolls, pizza and litres of fizzy pop and water

The duration of the party must not be any less than 2 hours

A goodie bag is to be provided to each and every child - including those that have only turned up to collect their sibling/cousin/nextdoor neighbour etc

The times - start and finish - that are written on the invitation are only a rough guide - allow half an hour either way for the start and up to two hours at the finish for collection or vacation of the premises

Parties must be held at home - unless you are lucky enough to live in a large town or city - when you can get stung by a soft play centre - bearing in mind that all other rules are still to be followed

Cake is generally a home made concoction of biscuits sandwiched together with chocolate mousse/goo or a bought sponge cake that has had a sugary syrup poured over it and is decorated with very sweet uncooked meringue

Tuesday, 14 September 2010

Well, it has been the summer, we've had visitors, days out and fiestas. I have probably 1000's of photos to sort and process, so keep tuned, as I will be doing a proper update soon. Well, one with pics anyway.

So, girlie #2 is back to school, only half days until 1 October - hurrah. Girlie #2 is in tomorrow for 2 hours presentation, where she will find out what subjects she will be doing this first year, and more importantly for her who her class mates are going to be. Tomorrow she will start at 10:00 and after that 08:00, which means catching the bus at 07:15 - this is going to be a shock to all our systems, and I just know that I'll be dropping her off in my PJs more than once!

So, that's it, the summer is over. Although I'm quite sad about this, it will be quite nice to get back into a routine again, and hopefully to start a bit more English Language coaching to get me ready for Christmas. Sending your kids to school is a costly business here in Spain. All text books have to be bought, alongside pens, pencils, paper, notebooks and all other sundry stationery items - to say nothing of the new clothes that will be required as they don't have school uniforms either.

So, my neighbour turned up with a carrier bag full of plum tomatoes, now whilst delicious in a salad, they were soripe that I really needed to use them up quickly. A quick investigation on the old tinterweb, and yes, passata can be frozen. So, I googled a few recipes and here's what happened.

I chopped the tomatoes in half and removed the woody stem bit, chopped some garlic and ripped up some basil. Chucked it all in a roasting tin and drizzled drowned it all in olive oil. Popped it into a moderately hot oven for about an hour and

I then removed the skins and pureed the hell out of it untill I was left with this

So very yummy, and the smells that were coming from my oven - delicious.

Batch two was roasted with onion and balsamic vinegar and batch three is still awaiting attention. So, any other ideas please?

I watched the news yesterday, and was very pleased to hear that the Province of Catalunya have voted to stop bullfighting from 01.01.2012, and I feel sure that the rest of Spain will follow suit.

In my local village they've not held an actual bullfight for the last 2 year's fiestas, although they did have this

Where the bulls are used as a sort of gym equipment. Here, they also have a "playtime" (?) where they let very young bulls into the ring for the local lads to torment. One year there was outrage as one wannabe 'ardboy was unnecessarily rough to the cow. Although there is no bloodshed, I'm still not totally sure that correbous/corredores or this local "playtime" are necessary either. But then there are lot of animal welfare issues here that I'm not totally OK with either.

Animals here are either beloved pets

Or tools - guard dogs are chained up 24/7, under fed horses and donkeys with over grown feet can be found pulling carts. There are countless stray cats and dogs roaming the streets and lanes and I've even heard of people buying a puppy at the start of the summer and throwing it out once school starts again. It's tough when you are an animal lover, but I'm starting to harden to it all, which is a real shame. Not so much that I didn't find a home for these four

But enough that I tend to turn the other cheek at times - sad but true.

Thursday, 29 July 2010

So last Sunday the girlies had their bags packed and were off to Daddy's, ready to fly out Monday lunchtime to Granny's in Scotland. #2 mentioned that her ear hurt a bit on Sunday morning, but not too much. So I told her that if it was still huting Monday morning that I would nip over and take her to the doctor's. Sure enough Monday morning found us at the doctor's and whilst I was busy babbling away about how lucky we were to get an appointment before her flight that lunch tme the doctor examined her ear - Otitis and sorry, but she can't fly :-( So whizzed round to Daddy's to break the bad news, collect passport and suitcase and headed back to home.

Thursday morning found us at the doctors again, and yes - she was OK to fly. It was decided that it would be less hassle for me to fly out with her and return the following day. So warmly dressed, Friday morning at 6 o'clock we were waiting to board a flight to Glasgow Prestwick. Shivering outside we were met by her Auntie - dressed in short sleeves - her sister and one of her cousins. I saw them off and made my way to the Adamton House Hotel (above) dumped my bag and caught the train to Glasgow Central.

I headed off to Buchanan Street and the St Enoch centre with haste - top of my list was new undies from M&S (natch), some new reading material and also a large supermarket to stock up on (unavailable here in Spain) herbs and spices. First stop though, was Next. I'd forgotten however that it was SALE time and yes, it was just like the normal jumble sale it ever was. I did manage to find a lovely pair of trousers and a top in the non sale bit though - result #1.

So, on to M&S and their knicker department - a lovely lady guided me through their bra section and I actually managed to buy 3 new bras that actually fit, and were not so stuffed with filling that I would be contravening the Sale of Goods Act. Fifteen (yes 15) new pairs of cotton (not easily found) knickers and - result #2.Down the escalator once I'd eventually found it and into the Per Una section where I found a lovely vest top and over shirt reduced in the sale - result #3.

Now then, here is where we go for niggle #1 M&S, what have you done? It was always so easy to find things. All tops were together, all trews, all dresses all skirts... you get my drift. But now? Now they've got this department store thing going on, where by they have all these different "collections" going on, didn't like it one bit.

So, time for a bit of lunch niggle #2 - jeezo how much do you have to pay for a cup of watery liquid masquerading under the name coffee? Honestly, I slung most of it away.

Rested I continued, down to Dotty P's where a rather pretty ruffled and ribbed vest top was mine - result #4 and on to Waterstones where I managed to bag 3 for the price of 2 and Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol for a bargainous 3.79 (sorry can't find the pound symbol) - result #5. A very helpful sales assistant directed me to the local Somerfield and niggle #3 it was carp. I'd forgotten that supermarkets in the UK have now mostly moved out of the city centres, so I'm still herb and spiceless.

Train back to the hotel in time for a shower and dinner - the dinner was gorgeous - warm bacon and black pudding salad - soo good I tried it at home to great success - chicken breast in a creamy tarragon sauce - to try if only I had tarragon and the most delicious sticky toffee pudding and ice cream for desert. But how expensive is alcohol 1.75 for half a lager and 5.75 a glass of wine!!! For that I could buy a litre of beer and 2 or 3 exceedingly quaffable bottles of wine here!

After a lovely nights sleep under a duvet - bliss - I made my way back to the airport for my flight home. 'Twas a lovely trip albeit a little short, but I'm glad to be home and warm again.

Ps Glasgow cabbies are really friendly and helpful. And sorry for the lack of photos - far too busy shopping to snap!

Sunday, 11 July 2010

So, the end of June brought the end of term dancing show. It was #1's first time on pointes, and she was just beautiful :-D Very, very proud mummy moment. She also danced a duet, which again was just gorgeous. Must work out how to get my videos on to You Tube.

The first half was The Sound of Music. Danced by the littlies

They were just gorgeous, then the older girls danced to Caberet

Then it was the turn of mine again. DD1 was not happy about dancing in this dress! It was too short for her comfort and she felt really self concious. She really didn't give it her all at all.

She was much more comfortable in this number and danced a whole lot better :-)

They both thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and made me very proud. A fabulous night.

The only downside is that the quality of these pictures shows that I really need to upgrade my camera. The noise levels at ISO 400are shocking. Although I have beeen assured by various far more knowledgeable than me photographers, that I couldn't really have done better with the equipment I have. I am still rather disappointed with these shots. Hey ho better hope I get a lottery win sometime soon!

Just had a little reminder that my blog's not been updated for some time, so thought I'd better make the effort and get my ever expanding alioli @rse into gear!!!

The Patron Saint of our village is San Idsidro, so way, way back in May they held a Romeria in his honour. A Romeria consists of getting up an indecent hour, taking the Santo from the village church and accompanying him to a nearby hermita. Where once the mass is held, sausages are sizzled, beer and wine is consumed and the kids (and some adults) indulge in a bit of a water balloon fight.

San Isidro leaving the village accompanied by...

the band.

The villagers accompany the Santo on foot or in their carrozas - that would be a trailer, generally a bit magged up to you and me!!!

And even...

the obligatory shopping trolley!!!

Dancing

and skipping

is obligatory on the trip to the hermita, where the mass is performed

Before the journey back, I managed a quick shot of these two stunning cousins

Fortunately there was also help on hand for this guy...

who not remembering how much it had rained recently parked in a recently ploughed field.This was followed by paella back in the village and bouncy castles and a zorb ball for the kids.